2023 WWE Draft recap and WWE Backlash Preview | The Still Real to Us Show | Episode #690 – 5/4/23

0:00 It's still up. Welcome everybody. Welcome to this week's edition Too Realte Show EPISO number six hundred and nineteen from May four, two hundred twenty three. Because you're w WE draft rerecap and review and definitely backlash preview and predictions edition of ass Team You. I am one app the show. I am Jeff back to join you every single week, my coast one on Goustomer Franklin, Doctor Trey. Why did you become a free agent, my friend? Well, I had this nagging injury. I have a fractured foot, so until I'm medically cleared to compete, there is no point in assigning me to a roster um. So as of this time, I'm kind. I guess maybe I'm going to be in the uh the supplemental supple mental round or just wait to see who offers me the most money. I mean, I gotta I gotta get a cool nickname, like a you know, daddy Magic or you know, cool cool handge. Yeah, I need something. It was weird.

1:12 By the way, Do we ever figure out why they named him Angelo? No, no, no clue at all is that the real name? No? I mean, because I was just it was. It was it was it I think I thought was something Parker. It was Jeff Parker. Yeah, they were terrible names for two point nine. So I just know how they're from Jeff to Angelo like that just seems like a stretch. But anyway, I just they're on my TV right now, so I had to ask the question, No, no spoilers. We are recording under an aw dynamite. I am not watching. I have the Yankees on, which I the way they've been playing lately, I wouldn't mind spoilers, just so I can not watch them, uh and then go to bed if they're playing like shit, or turn on aw dynamite. But we will, we will recap and review w WE Draft. We will pre even predictive toe back here all on this week's edition of the show. We're talking a little bit off air about the draft here and trying to make sense of some of the stuff, and we'll go round by round, not by night by night here momentarily.

2:12 But I'm just gonna kick it off with this. Going into the draft, Doctor Trey, I was very like excited, intrigued looking forward to the draft itself because I really like the concept. You know, it's there's a point more than just like a normal rawn SmackDown to sit down and watch both week's edition the show, because it's it's gonna be different, different feel, and then it transcends the ww rosters for both brands, including NXC three brands for the next year plus maybe even longer because the last time we did a draft with it was in twenty twenty one, and that was the fall once the draft was over, and this will be a theme for me at least a night. I thought it was extremely underwhelming and a little bit lame. I gotta be honest with you. That's that's my that's my preface initial thoughts on US. I feel like I need to get that out of the way now before we get into and looking at each round and then some surprises things that we liked, all that stuff moving forward here. I think my expectations were a little lower than years because really, I think we talked about it like last week's show, like really since like the first couple of drafts, like the first couple of drafts are kin of exciting, Like at this point it is kind of okay, we're probably gonna switch the mid card champions or probably going to switch the women. Is like that's kind of the norm, Like I'm kind of used to that. I think for me this year, the amount of NXT draft picks was kind of surprising, and it wasn't so much

3:44 on the Oh my god, I can't believe this guy is called up because a lot of these people that were draft were people that we've talked about for a while. It's just, oh my god, this sheer number of people moving up to the quote unquote main roster. That means nxc's gonna be really influx. And does that mean we're gonna get the budget? Because like I'm just kind of like just blown away by the sheer volume of NHT people making the jumps are either raw or SmackDown. So we're gonna go through the draft here, round by round. Afterwards, I'm going to talk about pick picks that were most excited for and then surprises from the draft as well. So I don't know if we want to like give you know, quick initial thoughts here or like we'll be here all day talking about this doctory. So I don't know how you want to go about this, but we'll go from night one SmackDown round one, which to me like another thing with this and I feel like we've said this in the past, but they do these rounds and they don't make sense because it's like, why would they choose Austin theory over seth freaking Rollin's, Like that just makes sense. Why is tris Stratus a Hall of Famer a seventh round pick? Like why no disrespect? But why is the LWL so far up ahead of like Hall of Famers and stuff?

4:56 So there's a lot of head scratchers. And then I think the thing that's gotten away from the brands over the years is there's there's no figureheads. I liked when they had the general managers. It made sense. I'm someone that remember the first ever W draft within two thousand and two, you had Rick Flair overseeing Raw and you had Vincikman overseeing SmackDown and then obviously Bischoff and Stephanie for a little bit, and I think Bischoff and Paul Hayman. Then I think it was Bischoff at Teddy Long for a long time, and then they had the tandems where it was Mick and Steph and Daniel, Brian and Shane. Like I liked when they did that, Like we have no clue who the hell's picking from Ron SmackDown. In the past, it was like network network executives from USA, network executives from Fox. But you just had random w hall of famers popping out of what they called war rooms. But who the hell was in the war room? Like the concept we're sports fans, Doctor Trey and I and we just came off the NFL draft, like we know who's making picks. I think that's something that's been lost and all this is like there's no true figureheads anymore. It's it's kind of pointless as to why and who was making these picks. I guess, like why are they mystery and the anonymous GM's back. I don't know. In my head, I just picture like Jerry Jones in one war room. I pictured Jerry Jones in the SmackDown war room and Daniel Snyder in the rod just because the color schemes. I guess. I don't know, Like it's it's one of those things, like one of the things that we give AW crap for and w

6:29 a lot of credit for is like storylines and tying up loose ends, and then it's like, wait, we're just randomly selecting for this, Like if they're gonna do this, Just do a lottery. Just do a straight hopper draw at least like they used to do with like the ping pong balls for the rumble, you know, like, just do a straight hopper draw at least, then I'll feel like, Okay, at least it's random. And then you don't get an LWO getting picked ahead of Hall of Famers. You don't get Austin theory getting drafted for seth Rods, where it's like somebody chose that, like no, no, no, just let the chips fall with the bay and even if it's predetermined, at least I'll feel like it's a better way to tie up the storyline than just going, hey, here's a Sean and Road dog to make this pick these round of picks, because they're just announcing them as it is now, I will say, if you're doing that, like, you know, the NFL did have a bunch of like former players come out and make their team's picks or random fans or you know, make a wish kids or whatever it was. That's fine, you could have set it up that way, you know, but still, like I kind of want to know who do I blame for? Somebody picking Austin theory over seth Rowlands, Like who do I blame for some of the stuff if they make bad picks and we hate them, I don't have some I can't yell at Son, I can't yell at somebody else, and for making a bad pick, I just have to yell at Fox in USA. Apparently I don't know. I forgot that there was a period of time where it was like this random generator that was just making picks for no reason at all.

7:57 I love that one because then you did story like it made no sense at all. I mean, man, I was not a fan of that, Like I like general managers and commissioners making picks. Well it's it's it's to me that was the throwback to the old WCW when they did the lethal lottery and it was supposedly quote unquote random drawings. So like just call a draft lottery and it's like, you know, you're or just called a lottery, like, oh, you know, Ron's getting x amount of ping pong balls versus smackdowns x amount of ping pong balls, and who was pink? And then you just have like a giant hopper with everybody's name on it and then just like, if you really want to be a good creative genius to try that, just go out there and be like, Okay, we really don't know who's gonna show what the ping pong balls aside, and then Roman rains ends up on NXT. I will also say that I do miss the day as we're like Rown SmackDown, like seeing two legitimate different promotions and there was really no times that they intersected with one another's. That was like the two thousand and two to two thousand and four, maybe even later two thousand and six era, and it was just a different feel for both shows. Then now it's like you can't really tell the difference, and you know, here's the Bloodline, here's randomly Austin theory on SmackDown. When he was on Raw, It's like, why are we Why is this happening? And there's no reason why. Nonetheless, let's get into it round by round. So night one SmackDown. Round one SmackDown picked Paul Hayman, Solo Sekoya and Roman Reigns from the Bloodline. Cody Rhodes went to Rob Bianco. Bel Air went to SmackDown Who and she's the Roman's Champion right now, and then Raw got Becky Lynch. Obviously, the big thing here was that Hayman, Solo, and

9:28 Roman were picked from the bloodline but not the usos, and it was like, hmm, could the USO's end up on another brand? Interesting? That's round one, Doctor Treys there anything you want to talk about that or should we just keep rolling along now? Well? I mean, the only thing I would question on this is it was weird that they said, hey, these are the only people that are able to be selected for this night and then the resumes like a rock because it's like, well, if I draft Bianca, why wouldn't the follow up take automatically be Ria. It's like no, no, no, we're gonna say Ria for Monday. But that just makes no sense to me. Is just do like, hey, you know, like these are the people, like the people that are able to I don't know, we just do it in one night, Yeah, just do like what we do in fantasy football and have like a like you know, Raw and protect so many people on this night and SmackDown if you want to save some stuff. Like there's ways they're doing it to make it a little better. But um, like you're looking going okay, like to these four, like because in my head, the first four picks are your cornerstones of your franchise. They're they're they're your cornerstone people. And to me, that's like, okay, Well, Spacdal's got you know, Roman, Schoa and Paul, and then then they get Bianca and then Raw gets Cody and Becky was like, wait, does that mean rhyas farther down the food chain than Bianca and Becky Like, it's just confusing on that aspect. And I would also say that I think championship just remain exclusive to the brands, which used to be a thing at one point as well with a draft like the Raw Women's champions should not be able to be drafted to SmackDown so that we get that stupid title swash that they did with Becky and Charlotte back in twenty twenty

11:01 one, and I guess nearly turned to blows behind the scenes. Round two SmackDown got the Street Profits, Raw out, Imperium, SmackDown drafted Edge, Raw drafted Matt Riddle. That is Round two from SmackDown. So once again, like I mean you're looking going okay, I mean you're going okay, So SmackDown's third pick of all the people they could pick was the Street Profits. Yeah, ahead of Edge. Yeah, I mean literally ahead of like you will get dorming. But like, here's like that seems a little bit high. I will say, picking stables. Like if I was a GM, that's all I would do, is I just picked stables. I'm like, I'm getting three or four people over the price of one. That's brilliant.

11:43 Well here take a look at this right round three you're talking about like the Street Profits, where the third pick for SmackDown Um, SmackDown picks Bobby Lashley, Raw picks Drew McIntyre, SmackDown picks the oc AJ styles, Luke Alice, Carl Anderson, and Meechin and Raw picks them in. So the street Profits, and I'm a huge fan of the Street Profits. Don't get me wrong, they were picked ahead of in round two and three, one, two, three, four, five different former w champions, Edge, Bobby Lashly, Drew mcatyre, AJ styles of the oc mms. Yeah, I mean, and all those guys are probable Hall of famers, and it's like, well one of them is yeah Edge. Well I'll be saying, but I mean just in general, like AJ's gonna be a Hall of Famer, Lashly McIntyre, mit all potential Hall of Fame guys, but riddles above all of them who just came off the suspension. Yeah, okay, all right, guys. Round four SmackDown Drafts, Damage Control, Eo Sky, Dakota, Kai and Bailey, Raw Draft Shinsky Kaka Morris, SmackDown Drafts, Alba, Fire and Island Don the NEXC Women's Tag team champions and Raw drafts the now former NEXE Women's champion Indie Hartwell, yeah, so Indie drops her Felt, Island Alba end their belts against a tag team that gets later drafted to Raw. But they're not dropping those belts, are we are? We gonna end emerging the NXT tag Women's tag belts and the women's tag team.

13:11 I'm just confused more than that a little bit maybe. And then SmackDown Lowdown one of Doctor Trey Servert shows on Peacock Um. SmackDown gets hit Rowan Lacey Evans, and then Raw ends up getting Viking ratings and Viking Raiders and Valhalla, Dexter Loomis Kansas Lay, Maxim Male Models, Maxine Duprie Man SWA and Massei Natalia Apollo Cruz from NXT, Chelsea Green and Sonya deville Zoe start from NXT. JD McDonough from NXT, and then just random free aging groups Omas Mustafa Ali, Dolph Siegler, and von Wagner from NXT. So is that the group of the Hey, here's some guys we don't know what the hell to do with, so we'll just leave this fringings that we need them?

13:58 So strange, right, like what? Um? Why call up von Wagner if he's a free agent? Like what what? Because he can't he just go right back to NXT, which he did this past Tuesday. They continue to storyline. So that was from SmackDown, Lowdown is what it is? H Night two Raw Round one, Ria Ripley goes to Raw SmackDown Awesome Theory, Raw takes Seth Freakin Rollins, SmackDown takes Charlotte Flair, and then it was also announced in this round that brock Lesner is going to become a free agent. He was not drafted Round one, he elects free agency. That's round one. I do love the Rea pick. I do think that you're sending a message as a company saying that Ria Ripley is a top tier talent.

14:43 So I do like that, pick doctor Trey. See here's here's my thoughts. Here's another thought. Instead of like trying to criss cross between two shows, how about we do, Hey, all the men will be drafted on SmackDown, women get drafted on Raw. M that's an interesting one, and then you can see what the ratings really do and see if the women actually can match up to the men drawing power. And then you know, hey, the first, you know, four rounds will be first five rounds be the men, first five rounds are raw either women, and then the last few rounds will be the tag teams or the stables, you know, and then create some intrigue. But this whole like, you know, hey, why you know Becky can get drafted while she's you know, on the SmackDown, but Seth can get drafted until Monday night. Like that's just you know, some of that stuff's just like the rules on this are weird to me and in my brain can't comprehend how they do this and not on Yeah, but then at that point we knew that that you know, Seth was going to end up on Raw once Becky was drafted. So are we k faving that Dexter and Indy are actually married because of the fact they both ended up on Raw Or is this like they know that we know this, so they say, Hey, we storyline of plights too. I guess. I guess we're k faving on that one. I don't know. I mean, I like the ending the NX Day this past Tuesday as well. I don't know if you saw it, but I thought that was like a really good weight of tying it up. We're talking about a lot of interesting, confusing creative on this episode. I thought that was like a good way to do a call back and tighten things up. So round two Raw gets Kevin Owens and Sammy Zane SmackDown gets the USO's Raw gets the Judgment Day, SmackDown gets

16:15 the LWO. So like they didn't even harp on hmm. I wonder if the USOS could land on Raw at all during the TWEE draft, Like I thought that was one solo Hayman and Roman were drafted together and the US's were left out to dry. Like, I thought that should have been a really big storyline for them into Night two, and they didn't address at all and then they just like, oh USO's good drafted to the SmackDown. So that was round two, Doctor Trey, Yeah once again? Still yeah, once again. Yeah, you go back to you go back to the draft itself, and you're looking at going, wait, so the SmackDown got the OC and the LWO and they're baby face grooms, but Raw gets Imperium and Judgment Day that are heel factions. I'm like it's a little confusing on that as well, Like you would think that if one show gets a baby face faction, the Shadows show would get a get the other baby face faction, but they didn't go that route. The straight Yeah, we're just gonna figure it out as we go. That sounds like w creative. So round three, Raw gets Live Morgan Rockel Rodriguez, the w W Women's Tack Team Champions, SmackDown gets Oscar, Raw gets the New Day, SmackDown gets the Brawling Brute Shamus Butch and Rich holland anything there. Doctor Trey. Uh, it just kind of feels at this point, I'm like, are we just taking the rivalries that run SmackDown and moving into Raw and vice versa, because you know,

17:48 we just had Bianca and Oscar both Now it's SmackDown. Uh, you know, it just feels it just feels like, hey, if we put a new coat like it, literally, if we put a new coat of paint on it, it makes it fresh, like we're just gonna change the color schemes. And then that's we can go right back to Byak and Oska because nobody on SmackDown watch that rivalry. We'll just go right back to it again if we have two. Yeah, there's some confusing stuff there. Um round four and I said earlier, I thought it was round seven. I was wrong. Um Trip Stratus goes to Raw. SmackDown gets Carrying Cross, Raw gets Ronda Rowsy and Shanna Basler. SmackDown gets La Night. I mean Shana and Ronda going to Raw along with Raquel and Live and not surprising, but we do get Becky and Ronda on the same brand. So that's maybe a WrestleMania forty teaser. Maybe who knows? Round five five gets Bronstrom and a Ricochet SmackDown gets SHOTSI Raw gets Bronson, Read SmackDown gets pretty deadly for men X Day, I am sup pretty sad word street profits and pretty deadly I'm not gonna lie. I'm a super stoke for this one. Yeah, that's gonna be a lot of fun. I'm a big fan of Pretty Deadly.

18:59 They've it felt like main roster talents for some time. And then finally Round six Rackets Alpha Academy SmackDown gets Rick Boogs, Rackets, Katana Chance and Kadan Carter from NXT. SmackDown gets Cameron Cribs from NXT, but he hasn't been there since November. So that's the last round on the Raw broadcast before we get to Raw. Talk a little surprised that, and it will get into week cover the Freedom, but Boogs is selected by himself. That's a little I was a little bummed about that. I that'd be a tandem pick. But you know, we still get Lashly. So we have Lashly Bronson read an Austin theory at a triple threat coming up this weekend. But theories now on SmackDown, as is Lashly Bronson reads on Raw and the icy titles now on Raw. So does that mean we just take Bronson read means he has no shot at winning this weekend? We prove him predict backlash towards the end of the Show, Stay Tuned, Folks, and then Raw Talk the supplemental Draft. I guess, Raw gets Dana Brook, Nicky Cross, Johnny Gargano, Angel Garza on Particlario of Los Lotharios, Karatzawa, Piper Niven, Zia, Lee, Tega Knox, Emma Riddick, Moss no longer Madcap, Induce Sheer and Gender Mahal from NXT Odyssey, Jones from NXT SmackDown gets Tamina and Grayson Waller from NXC and then again Free Agency, Baron Corbyn Shelton, Benjamin Cedric, Alexander Elias, and then from NXT Zion Quinn. Those were

20:30 the picks from Raw Talk. I still did not know Zion Quinn. It's still part of WWE, so um, and it makes me sad that once again we're kind of hopping around the whole, Like Shelton and Cedric are kind of floating now, like maybe the most underrated tag team in WWE, and their time of the her business was fantastic, and like, a aren't we all just kind of like going, hey, just put Bobby Omas and Cedrica Shelton didn't get together again? Like why do we guy to keep dancing around this thing? Um, but so is it Corbyn's losing streak making him a free agent, and then nobody just said. Everybody just said no, we're good. I got. I don't. I don't I understand free agents when they're hurt. I don't understand the free agency when they're active participants on the roster, and then all of a sudden they're just like, yeah, we got. It's literally I don't want to work here anymore, so I'm leaving this. Can they go to? Can they go to? Aw these guys it literally is a creative has nothing for you at this time type move.

21:34 It's bizarre, right, Yeah, I mean makes no sense. The first night when I looked at the free agents, you go, oh, Mustaph Ali Dolph Szigler, Like it could be like, hey, we can put these guys in either show and they make they can make anybody look good because they're absolutely fantastic workers and sellers. Let's say when you get into you know, the Baron Corbyn's and the Aliases, you're like, oh, okay, we just need fodder for some of these guys, and so we just bounced them back and forth like it really should they should just do Barren and Alliance as a tag team and be the guys on the street, like playing money for playing guitar for money and loose change would be fantastic. I think that they should call the tag team like, um, you probably thought we were going to be main inventors. If you went back to twenty eighteen, I would call them the street urchins. Ooh, okay, street urchins. W We'll test now and see if W creators really listening, because if they come out and there the street urchins or will wrestle for food and then you just use the use it as an acronym. Yeah wwff okay, not bad, not bad. I don't think they'll be sued for that one. Um.

22:45 So graving the W draft, I gave it like a D plus doctor try. I don't know about you, but I was. I was a C minus D plus. I was like right in the same range. It was just like it was lackluster. There. You kind of saw where the picks were going. You're like, yeah, we know, Like I mean like it was literally every married couple still together. I don't think they splip a single couple between the two shows, which hey, I give them credit. I mean it's a it's it that's the right thing to do. Yeah, work life balanced type situation. You know. Can I say that the one that I thought was like thrown, I was like, oh, Ricochet went to raw. So that means like Samantha Irvin his fiance, she's on SmackDown, She's gonna stay there. No, it was announced afterwards that Mike Roman her at Switch. Yeah, we're I mean, she's fantastic by the way.

23:30 I love how she does the imperium intro us. She's great and I'm not knocking that, but I do miss when you know, Cole and j R got drafted that one year. Oh that was terrible when and neither one of them knew about it, and Jim Ross was so yeah. No, I mean, if you ever watched JR. Watch read Jr's book, he talks about it and then I still check it out from time to time on YouTube where he's like shocked he's drafted and you hear him say like, yeah, I'm getting up. Like so he was clearly set in the headset like it up, you gotta go Switch, and he liked it, not like he was legitimately pissed because he thought that was they were putting him out to pasture there and they did basically with that move. But I'm not gonna like I was kind of hoping Cole would go to Raw and uh, Kevin Patrick will go to Smackdowndown. I mean, I like Kevin Patrick, but he's had a rough couple of weeks. Kevin Patrick Waite Barrett though it would make smackdowns sound way more legitimate and fancy. It would be n xcuk's back the whole thing. So we're gonna break down picks that were most excited for surprises from the W Draft. So starting with it, picks that were most excited for I've got a couple of year Doctor Trey. So first one being is Imperium on Raw. I think Gunther becomes an eventual contender and possible holder of the w Worldweight Championship. I like this move. I think this is a better move for Gunther in the long run and Imperium as well. Not to mention, depending on who they put the title on at Night of champions I mean we saw a little bit of a prelude a prelude for that at the

25:02 Royal Rubble with Cody and Gunther closing out the Rumble. Uh, you could have Cody. You know, Cody had to go through all of Imperium, you know to win that channel. I mean look at that. If Cody has to go through like Roman reigns, brock Lesner and then Imperium, that those are some obstacles overcome. So that's that's a pretty I'm excited about that pick as well. Plus, like, are we going to get like gang warfare between Judgment Day and Imperium for control of Raw? So I think it's interesting because who's the most dominant heel stable because that's the way the guys set it up. UM on SmackDown, I like edge Bobby Lashly in AJ styles plus the OC on SmackDown because I look at it and I'm like, Okay, are these guys that are gonna be challenging Roman now for the next three six nine months. Yeah, the Bobby pick was really good because you need a credible challenger for Roman. AJ can fill any role you need on the show. Um you know those those are and then uh, theory kind of being second fiddle to Roman will be interesting. So we saw a little bit that with the money the bank cassion opportunity, So we saw a little bit of that contrast there So are you disappointed that the Cody Roman few maybe split up now from Raw SmackDown with Cody go on a raw. Yes, and no, I mean I'm not because we've kind of seen it and they can always come back to it at some point because I don't know about you, but I just know, Comrade, Rumble time, the brands will be kind of merging again. That's just typically the MOO Like once we get to Rumble,

26:33 as you hit into WrestleMania, those lines get blurred, so you could always circle back to it again. So it's a way to kind of increase anticipation for the eventual and then you can do like, hey, it's Cody versus Roman once in a lifetime. Again, Yes, we've not like we've never heard that before. I like Drew Mcatar and Schinska Nackamore on Rob because those to me aren't w World heaweight championship tenders. So I like that move. Those are good, Um shinsk Now a couple of questions for me, like and and so we saw the mis good draft, and we've seen the lists of free agents. Um, they said there's some people were ineligible because of injuries than Bray Wyatt's the Randy Ords. There's no mention of it's Muscle Champa, so I'm hoping that he's another one on that list too. Yeah.

27:18 So, um, you know, the little interaction between shins K and Mis on Raw I thought was pretty good too. And then you know Raw is kind of the entertainment show, and when you have something like shinsk who's he's a great wrestler, but you can do more stuff with him with more time on Raw than maybe trying to squeak because he's not a great promo guy, but he's got such a dramatic entrance it kind of fits better for me on Raw with him. So yeah, I think he's going to be in a better spot under Triple H's creative tutelage than he was in the previous regime. Um. And then speaking of Raw, Doctor Trey, I was taking a look at the draft and I'm like, man, the Raw Tag team division is deep loaded. You've got Perium, Maximum, Mail Models, Viking Raiders, New Day, bron Stroman and Ricochet, Alpha Academy, Indu Sheer Loth Sarios, and then you've got Kevin Owens and Sammy Zaine. So that made me wonder I'm wondering if the tag team titles now are going to be exclusive to Rob with KAO and Sammy there, because there's not many tag teams on SmackDown right now. I do think we may see this on Friday Night.

28:22 And this is I have not read this anywhere. I don't know anything about this, But if raw can create a new world championship, could you not see Paul Hayman petitioning Adam Pears for a SmackDown Tag Team Championship to then put on the USOS. But then you just have the USO's Street Profits and OC just feud for the next year. Well, I mean you can always make tag teams too. I mean, Ricochet and broun Stroman weren't a tag team like four months ago, and also Naturn, so it wouldn't be as difficult. I mean think about this, like, let's take let's put the us title on Bobby Lashley and then y also can put Austin Theory and Grayson Waller together as a tag team. Yeah, yeah, that wouldn't be bad.

29:07 I mean that would be like I don't know, egomaniac annoyance. I guess they would call it, oh my gosh, like I mean then they would have competing talk shows at the same time, you know, that would be fine. Yeah, and that was one of my guys. Like one of my people I'm excited to see about is Grayson Waller on SmackDown, Like he just kind of fits that miss role. Uh, just a younger version of Miss Maybe on SmackDown. I think that's gonna be really good for him as well. Yeah, is there anything else that that excites you, because I want to actually when when it comes to Grayson Waller, that or something that surprised me about that. So is there anything else that sticks out to you then? Over I mean I'm interested to see what they do with the women's tag team titles when you see you know, because the one thing we've been talking about is I've heard of people say this, like the women's tag team division in W two B has been lackluster. Best since probably Sasha and Bailey, Yeah we're together, since the pandemic time. I mean, everything else has been kind of like it's injured, like Becky and Leed. It was interesting for a little bit heading into WrestleMania, but outside of that has been met. But what you call up, you know, Albafira, I La, don you call up Kaden in Katana which still Katana chance maybe my new least favorite name in professional wrestling. Um, But it's just it's interesting to see them get called up bring up the NFC Tag team champions as well, that maybe now we're gonna start working on getting some depth to that division.

30:34 UM. I still think Live in Shotzi would be a better tag team than Live in Raquel, but that's just personal. Um. But yeah, like that, like that's the one that guys sit out, just something like you're like, where does Cameron grind fit into the SmackDown? You know, we haven't seen him in like six months, but where does he fit in? Like is he just gonna be kind of fodder for you know, building guys. Are they actually gonna give him a push some of the more interesting picks like that, like what do you do with the carrying cross? Like you know you took you know he's we already seen a few with Bray and if you with Ray, he's like do you put a fresh coat of paint on him and do something else? In them? Does he stay a heel because SmackDown's kind of heal heavy with with Roman and theory kind of running that show, like where does a guy like carrying cross and la Knife get into the mix? So a lot of the points that you made there are some of the things that surprised me from the w E draft. So some things here just going off on what you said over the last couple of minutes.

31:33 So starting with Grayson Waller, I was surprised that Grayson Waller getting called up from NXC to SmackDown was during a supplemental pick during Raw talk Like how did that not happen during one of the main shows. I thought, that's that should have taken precedence over no disrespect, but like Albafire and Ila Down, Andy Hartwell, I would say of like all the NXC talent, like that is one of the guys that was drafted from NXC to WE to rawer smack Down. Then I felt like should have gotten an opportunity even more than pretty Deadly, Like I thought Grayson Waller should have been like the top pick from NXC to Raw or SmackDown. Yeah, I mean Cameron Grimes being announced, but Grayson Waller not being announced. You know, like we have ay like and you and I love Cameron Grins but as far as for the fans, out of sight, out of mine, we haven't seen him since November.

32:24 So at this point we're going on almost six months since we've seen him on TV. And we just saw Grayson, you know, with with Carmelo Haze, Yeah, in the main event, and so I was like, why why is that pick? And then plus to tie in with Sean Michaels, Like how great would have been on Raw for Sean to be the one to announce that Grayson got drafted, you know, and you get that awkward tie and then Waller actually has a match on a Raw like that would have made up a lot more sense and you could have tied up that storyline right there and not had to worry about anything on NXC. You could have tied it up into a little bow right then and there moved on. Um. So yeah, like him being kind of like a throwaway pick, it makes me worry also that like are we viewing him as a throwaway pick that like, oh his time and aches he's up, let's throw on the main rosters if he can do anything like that. It makes me where they don't have a plan. Other things that surprised me, And after there was. It was teased that there may be some splits. The Street Profits, Damage Control and Alpha Academy don't split. Actually nobody splits at all. Re is still with the Judgment day View. Soos are still with a bloodline. Zero splits, no fresh go to pain. Everybody is still together. I thought that was pretty lame. Yeah, I mean it is. Sorry, Stanley just came in and decided to hit me with a bowl. Uh we're watching aw and talking wrestling. I figured I think he just yes, I'm okay, okay.

33:52 He just gave me the foreign object and then asked me if I was okay. Um, top five home and potentially of all time? Do you need me to call the authorities? They just said try again. So anyway, it's all because he wasn't cheesy proofs. Oh never mind until next week for doctor Franklin. Oh my gosh, this Maid's hop it's almost as good as the police be showing up what I'm doing. It's definitely up there. But yeah, to not have Indians tag teams to break up. Now here's the thing. If I'm not mistaken, they did the heavy Did they draft heavy machinery separate or together? A couple of a few years ago they did the draft I don't even remember, dude, I'm gonna say separate. I'm gonna say separate. So I kind of thought they did it together. And then they split up on the show The Fun Week. So there is that possibility that, you know, we see the Street Problems come out and talk about how high a draft pick they were, and then all of a sudden, you know, Angelo Dawkins takes out montest Ford. So I mean they could still do some something like that, just to try to create a little more bouncing baby faces and heels as we were talking about, like you know some size of some shows are a little more one sided than others. It's still a possibility. I mean, can we say, Alphaca they got drafted to draw or SmackDown was hit. Then again Alpha Academy got drafted to Raw.

35:17 Okay, so you still have all the stuff with Alpha and Maximum Mail Models still on the same show. Yeah, you still that tie and though I mean, but I mean I thought it would have made more sense, like all right, Chad Gabel gets drafted to SmackDown. Oh it's gets drafted to Raw, like that's how and then everybody from Maximum Mail Models is on raw, Like that's how it tightens up until you have Chad Joy maximum male models and they beat down to ODIs. You make ODIs a baby face. Okay, because I don't know. I just thought that was strange after all that teasing, not even damage control. I mean damage control I thought was an easy layup, Like there's no way Bailey, EO and Dakota Kai stay together. And I think there are obviously, as you're pointing out with Alpha Academy, potentially there are some teases going on there with damage controlling. Maybe you're on, You're you're onto something there that the storyline split is more important than the draft split. Yeah, I mean you could have EO and Dakota jump Bailey all of a sudden, Bailey's back to being a baby face, you know, Like there there are ways of doing it and kind of evening out the roster and stuff like that. But it is weird that. Oh, as I'm saying that, I'm just watching a car shoot to join no no spoilers, say, um, but yeah, there are ways of doing it and trying to evening you out things, and they typically do that.

36:35 We've seen that with other people in the past. We're like mizz and Morrison. We've seen that in the past as well, where happening like right after the draft. So there are ways of doing it, but it's just awkward and to tease it for so long that hey, one side could get drafted to the other, one side could get drafted the other, and that it never plays out that way. You mentioned Albifier and island On. They're the NX Human Tech Team champions. They retain on Tuesday. Ever, Katana Chance and Kadan Carter they now take those titles to SmackDown. I'm wondering, is it time to make Raw and smackdow Wen's Tag Team Championships with Ricrell and live On raw Ila and Alba on SmackDown. I mean, could they do that? Could they morph the NXC Women's Tack Team titles to the SmackDown Woman's Tack Team titles? But then are you taking the NXT tag team titles off of NXT? I think you, I think you would. I don't think they've really done anything with them unfortunately, I mean, in general, really has it with the women's tax Team division. I don't know. I could see Sammy's upset by the fallon Keaner feud in man, I know, I know.

37:37 To me at this point it is just like, hey, just you don't really need the tag titles on NXT for the women. They really they really haven't done anything on it, Like nobody's really jumped up and like captured our imagine. I mean honestly, Ila and Alba are the closest thing to look like, Well, Toxic Attraction was fantastic and when they were doing it, but really outside Toxic Attraction and maybe albert Island now like nobody's really went ooh. I want to see them on a RAW or I want to see them on SmackDown as a tag team, and they've had opportunities to capitalize on them, they just haven't done it yet. Other surprises, Andy Hartwell reunites with Candice Larray, Dexter Loomis and Johnny Gargano and Raw. Hopefully they make that a storyline and to be shocked if they don't, or at least Indian k this is a tag team, like we know, we do know Indie Harwell has a high ankle spring. She did get entered in last week's match and then she confirmed on Tuesday's NXC, so maybe a little bit before we see her on TV. But not to mention, don't you feel like there's like a little bit of a disconnect still between the NXT and the main roster because you just put this title one. Yeah, then right away you're going, yeah, it sucks. It sucks for her. I gotta be honest, like one title defense, yeah, because she's not in that vein when like they called up Oscar and Becky and Bay and Charlotte and Sasha like she's I love her, She's great Indie Hartwell, but she did not get that run as NXC Women's Champion where you're like, she immediately joins it now can

39:08 become a legit contender now. In the past, people like Bianca Belair have been very successful and people like Shana Basler were not on the main roster. But I don't know, I think Indy Hartwell could be a little bit more Shana than she could be Bianca. Yeah, and and not to man, she like like we're gonna like just not a lot of not a decent run with it. And I mean even heading into that match where she won the ladder match, I don't know, she was my last pick to win. Like, I like, if I would have taken any of the other four women in that match before I picked Indy just on the way she'd been booked leading into that match, And it's like, I almost feel like they gave her the belt to give her a little bit of credibility to get her drafted to the main roster as like it's it was almost like a reward for being there for so long, getting drafted up, as opposed to actually the title win. Matt Rynold, Kevin Owens a sam he ain't all on Raw with the bloodline on SmackDown. Does that mean the storyline is ending this Saturday at Backlash? Possibility? But does that mean we could lead into like Gunther Gunther and Riddle wouldn't be a bad matchup, but then you get Imperium versus Kevin, Sammy and Riddle. Maybe maybe more storylines ending LWL on SmackDown, Judgment Day and Raw. I guess this is coming to an end. I mean, in theory, that really wasn't any different because the brands those guys are on before the draft, very true, very true, they didn't have borders drawn up, so maybe now with borders drawn up, it does end the rivalry. But you know, it's just like they're like, oh my god, It's like, well, there was no borders, so you could have

40:42 all these crazy matches and matchups are across brands, and now it's a little bit more organized. I guess something that I was disappointed in what you alluded to before tra La Night not going to RAW. I figured that three hour show would be good for him, and then you put him in that World Heavyweight Championship title chase. Yeah, and once again, when you have a two hour show and a three hour show, at three hour show is a more promo time. To me, Raw always be that got like our best talkers should be on RAW. You have more time to kill. So you put an La Night on Raw because that dude can cut a promo with the best of them. And you know, some of the other guys that aren't great talkers, Hey Lee wants to backdown because they're wrestling. Does it for them? You know? But then again, Raw gives people a chance to grow because I don't think four years ago he was at Chad Gable was a great talker, but now he's one of the best promos in WWE because he's had time to develop on the microphone. Other surprises Odyssey Jones just being called up from NXC to Raw Odyssey Jones, who has the charisma and looked to be a raw or SmackDown superstar. Absolutely true, but he's been away from injury for almost a full year in NXC, and since his return he's been taking a lot of el's. That was a surprise. Yeah, once again, I kind of felt like, hey, this is one of those things where like, I mean, I think what Breaker beat him in like under three minutes, not too longer, Yeah, like a quick match. So it's like, what like he gets called up, but the guy who beat him in three minutes and still in NXC, or the guy who beat him in them the Breakout Tournament, Carmelo Hayes as still as NXC, and he's

42:13 he's now going to ROW. I will say, if you if if the old adage of hey, the people that kind of run now we all know is in charge of all creative. But when you have the print Charns and the Michael Hayeses and the old school guys still on raw, honestly, Jones looks like a WW superstar. He's big, he's fast, he's charismatic, and maybe he's one of those things where they looked at when hey, we could do something with him where maybe he doesn't fit in with the NXT mold of you know, faster, quicker, more agile kind of guys. Fair fair, Yeah, maybe he's better suited on rowan SmackDown for his development then on NXC. I mean, I think that's a very fair point as well.

42:57 Um, so that was a surprise. And then we've talked about this, it's of all times here, but this just surprised me, Like, what the hell does free agent status mean? Von Wagner appeared on NXC this week to continue his storyline about his background and it got like very deep. They went through a picture where he had some sort of potential brain surgery when he was a child, but he was drafted as a free agent, and then why the hell do this to Dolf Corbin, Alias Mustaf ali Et, Cedric Shelton, etc. Etc. Well, not to mention when we were talking about the tag teams and how Raw is absolutely loaded and smackdowns, maybe a little weaker Alias and Booze, if you put them on the same page, would be a really fun tag team. And yet Booze goes to SmackDown Alias is a free agent, so it just makes it kind of odd.

43:44 Like to me, it's either, hey, these guys, we know these guys can work with anybody and sell their asses off, so let's keep them kind of floating and use them where we need them. But it is kind of, I don't know, like kind of a kick in the balls to those guys. Is that, like we're not even good enough to be on one brand. We have to kind of float around and kind of make a name for ourselves. Again, it's just weird. It's it's surprising, and that's why it fell into the surprising bucket. Is there any other surprises that we haven't covered here? Doctor try that stood out to you, So to me it is where things were like when you look at like who gets drafted is like we can draft up like once you get the logic, and we can draft up the NXC Women's champion and the NXC Women's Tag team champions, but the North American Champion and the XT champion and the former NC champion are not good enough to get called up like that, Like the logic behind it doesn't always make sense to me, And I think that's kind of where we're at now, is like they just just just called a lottery, Like, just do something different, because the draft picks don't make sense to any of the fans. Once again, why in the hell would you draft Austin theory before you draft seth Rollins, Like I think, I think, I think I agree with you on the her and roll and stuff. I think we would point out towards the NXC thing that they said it would be select NXC talents. Now we didn't know who those select talents were, but they said select, which makes it all in all. Like you and I are just very common sense wrestling fans. We just want logic with our creative creative and

45:17 we get it. It's it's wrestling, it's still real to us type stuff. We just want some logic and common sense behind it. And that's not what we got with the w draft unfortunately. Like the rules are very convoluted, confusing, and then when the picks happen, it just does not some of them, most of them, they don't make sense. Yeah, I mean because when they say it's select NCS, who's the site like you were talk about with a fancy draft, like you get your keeper leagues and it's like, well, what does anyc get to keep three guys, and they say, hey, we're keeping Carmelo, Braun, and West, but the girls you can pick any of them you want. Don't worry about us, We'll just make more I don't know. Yeah, and then if you're if anybody from nxc's available, why aren't you doing a long term pick here, like a Roxanne Perez, a Cora Jade, a Tiffany Stratton, Like I don't know, or why why does an NXC get included so where they could draft these free agents and bring them down NXC. I've always thought that that would be really really beneficial of the draft, as if you started treating NXC like a third brand. They were doing that at one point, especially the time that they were in the Survivor series, then got away from that once two point o relaunched and pandemic app and all that crap. The pandemic I've always said, I felt like the pandemic killed the NXT black and Gold era that we loved, and that was one of the bad things, a real bad things from a wrestling perspective when it came to the pandemic we've been going through the last three plus years. With that said, Trey let's switch gears to w W Backlash, will preview and predict it. It comes to us

46:50 live this Saturday on Peacock from Colosso de Puerto Rico and San Juan, Puerto Rico. Let's start with the first match here, the San Juan Street Fight. Bad Bunny gets back into the ring for the first time since Russe Many thirty seven, that performance that was pretty damp historic quite honestly. He takes on Damian Priest. I've got bad Buddy in this one. Yeah, I've got bad Bunny also because the entire Cologne family runs into help him, the Cologns, Yeah, Primo, Carlito, Epico, Carlos, my entire Cologne family. It's a San Juan street fight, so yeah, I mean, you can't have a San Juan street fight without at least somebody from that family making appearance. So I'll go with I'm a bad Bunny just in general, but I really would love to see Carlito come out and spit an apple when Damian Priest's face, and Bad Bunny gets the roll up for it. Carlito did always said say he spits in the face of those who are not cool, so it's always possible. I thought you're gonna say all I like the Cologns. I think that'd be cool. Next match here for the Raw Women's Championship. Bianca Belair from SmackDown defends against EO Sky Who do you like this one? Not to try? I will take Bianca because they're all on SmackDown.

48:00 Is the Raw Women's title match, I'll take Bianca. I'm gonna take Bianca Belair as well. I can't see EO getting the victory. I think the EO storyline with damage control and potentially split up is more important than her winning a championship unfortunately right now, but she will someday soon. Austin Theory defends the United States Championship in a triple threat match against Smackdowns Bobby Lashly. Ros Bronson read, I'm gonna take Bobby Lashly in this one, doctor try and keep the United States Championship on SmackDown. So I've gone kind of back and forth on that one because I might For me, I think I'm gonna take Theory retaining just because I think Bobby can get tangled up with Roman and Solo, so I will take because that might be a way to kind of move you know Cedric and you know Shelton to kind of back up Bobby against the Bloodline and the USOS. So I'll take Austin Theory retaining the US title.

48:54 Next match here is the match that makes no sense of just is randomly announced with no creative behind it and made people think that Vince is definitely back. Seth Freaking Rollins taken on Omas Doctor Trey. Who do you like? So I'm gonna take Seth because he's on a brand and Omas is a free agent. So I will take Seth because that, to me makes more sense than the random free agent getting a win over the guy who is highly drafted to RAW, I too, am gonna take Seth Freaking Rollins because I think he'll be in the World Heavyweight Championship title hun towards the end of the month and getting an l now will not be good for that that chance. Next match here is Ria Ripley from RAW defending the Smacked Holman's Championship against Zelena Vega, also from RAW. I'm gonna take Ria Ripley and this one so this one's hard because it is a little bit of Puerto Rico. But once again, Rio was the number one pick of Raw Monday Night, and Zelena was included in a stable that we almost forgot to choosing an end. So I will take Ria getting the win, even though maybe they just want Red to get heat by killing Zelena in Portico Bud. If you ever gone back and look at the memes Rhea and Jelena and how reapens her every time is quite beautiful. I'll put it that way. It's a beautiful, beautiful pinning combination for those too. I hope Selena puts on one hell of the performance because I think she's a very talented wrestler, and I hope that this is a breakout for her. She's always been looked at more as a manager than a performer, and I think she is just as good as a performer as she

50:24 has been as a manager at her time in dode OUI. That takes us to our next match here, Cody Rhodes taking on Brock Lesser doctor Trey. Who do you like in this one? This one's been hard, Jeff, I once again back and forth on this one. I think I'm gonna take Brock. So I will take Brock in the win, and then they have the rematch in Saudi Arabia. Interesting. Yeah, I'm gonna take you. Go ahead, I'll go Brock. I was trying to figure a way out of that because I think Cody will be in the World Championship match. But I think I'll take Brock. Yeah, And that's why I'm taking Cody is I think he is in that World Heavyweight Championship title hunt. I actually think maybe Brock costs him the title or costs him in the tournament rather than um, you know, hands him in l right now heading into that. So I'm gonna take Cody taking the win over Brock and Brock and doctor Trees gonna take Brock taking the victory over Cody. You know, I would like, you know, Brock's gonna be a crown jewel because the page Yeah, Night of Champions, Night of Champions. So then you guys figure out what is Brock going, Like, what's Brock going to do to justify the payout?

51:28 I just think they have to have the rematch. So and that's what I'm thinking is maybe Cody gets the victory, they have the tournament, Brock interferes in a match on raw, cost Cody a match in the tournament, and that sets up the match at Night of Champions makes sense too, I like, I like your thinking, So I'm still taking Brocks because it's Brock and he now has added a duster to his repertoire of articles of clothing. And then finally, what I presume will be the main event, six man tag team match Matt Riddle, Kevin Owens, and Sammy Zain taken on the Bloodline. I'm gonna take on Riddle, Owens and Sammy to send the Bloodline spinning on SmackDown, where then we start seeing the dissension between the USOS and Roman and Solo. I like that, But then I also like my idea earlier about making new tag team champions on SmackDown like brand specific. So I'll take the Bloodline getting the I'll take the USO's getting the wind so that we ham I can come out on SmackDown. Is that we need to have SmackDown or tag team jo SmackDown, and the USOS just defeated the other guys, so they clearly deserve their own tag team belt. So there you go. There is our w Backlash previeum predictions. We recapped and review the WW draft for you as well on next week's edition. The podcast, we will recap and review ww Backlash, then obviously everything else that is going on the waeful world of professional wrestling. We you have a better idea about aw All, in which as we record this, I think they've gotten over forty three thousand tickets sold at Wembley Stadium, which is very exciting and great news for them.

52:58 So lots of discuss here each and every week on SRTU in the world of profession around saying before we close up shop on this week's edition the show, let's get a couple of plugs and sponsored out of the way. You could download show every Thursday at Real Guy Radio dot com, Russell chatting at on Twitter and the So Real the Show iTunes feed. Don't for you have to rate, review and subscribe top scommon charts on iTunes. You can follow us individually on Twitter for myself at SRTU Jeff and for doctor Trey Franklin at d Doctor Trey and of course don't forget to follow show on Twitter at SRTU podcast. With that being said, what is going on the oneful world of dot tre Franklin this week? Well line, Jeff said, You can follow me on Twitter at the Doctor Trey. You can find the Facebook Doctor Trey Franklin. When you're on Facebook, check out Rocket City Championship Wrestling as we are on the roador Wrestling Hans six coming up May twenty and from Hazel Green, Alabama at the Run to City Arena this year headline by you, the crowds, the Bullet Club, Jays Owens, Dalton Castle and the Boy Action, Mike Jackson, Sin Body. So many people on the show this year.

53:54 We're excited about and looking forward to it. Just coming up here in three weeks, so yeah, right out, three weeks out, twenty sixteen days. There you go, support of the great things that support s r TU and once again spread the word about the Storrealtha show as well. Thank you for DOWLONEI thank you for making us part of your week until next week. For Dutre Franklin who was hit with a bowl by his son, I'm Jeff Pack. This is the Storalta Show. Better, Better,